SAIIER 2020:Deepanam School - Knitting, crochet, weaving, stitching and spinning
Knitting, crochet, weaving, stitching and spinning
a project of Entity::Deepanam School
At Deepanam we strive to use different engaging activities to increase the students' concentration and to develop creativity, patience, awareness and perseverance. With this project we introduced fiber arts activities in craft class, hands-on projects that develop hand-eye coordination, creative thinking and mental focus.
Description of project:
Weaving on looms was introduced to the students of age 7 to 12. It was one of the most loved activities. They were enthralled how each could weave cloth with yarn and turn the samplers into something useful like a pencil pouch or a bag.
Weaving acted as therapy to a particularly difficult class of preteens who followed the project. They surprised their facilitators by concentrating and complying and finishing the project on time.
Students learnt about the cotton material and also went through the process of cultivating and harvesting cotton, thereby making connection to the fiber worn by most of us everyday.
Knitting involves engaging both sides of brain: logic and creativity. It is also soothing and encourages focus and creativity. It helped to develop problem solving and also patience and learning that there is a possibility of rectifying mistakes. It is extremely forgiving. You can open up the knit work and start all over again.
This project was useful for all the age groups with different levels of complexities.
Outcomes:
Concentration: It was remarkable to see the ability of the students to engage in projects like knitting with a lot of concentration and deft use of handwork skills.
Creativity: all the students came with choices of different colors/designs and were delighted with the outcome of the use of material and equipment. The students created useful objects like bags and covers with the help of crochet and knitting.
Enthusiasm was maintained until the end of the project on hand.
Conclusion:
As we have looms now, thanks to funds provided, we will continue weaving in the future for all age groups.
Art and crafts are given less and less preference in schools due to lack of funds. More focus is given to mental development but including art in the curriculum helps in the holistic development of the child.
